Pakistani Government: Sorry for the Spin!
If you’re wondering whether the story of Benazir Bhutto’s death can be even more awkward, I’ve got news for you: yes it can. The Pakistani government just made a huge u-turn. It has apologized for saying that she died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack.
The countries caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan even went so far as to ask the media and people to “forgive and ignore” comments made by the Interior Ministry’s spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema.
Aside from apologizing the Pakistani government has also said that it wants to do whatever necessary to find out who killed Bhutto. It has published photos of her killer and offered a reward for anyone who’s willing to identify him.
Frankly I have no idea what to make of the sudden changes. I’m just as confused as the Democratic candidates seem to be. The only thing that’s clear to me is that the US was deeply involved in Pakistan’s internal affairs and that all those involved played dirty politics and took great risks. Other than that, we can’t conclude anything. Well, aside from concluding that many questions remain that is.
One last thing: quite some people seem to believe that an international organization should investigate Bhutto’s death. I disagree. This is an issue that concerns Pakistan. Especially the US, which opposes the international tribunal, is quite hypocritical to ask Musharraf to let foreign investigators in to investigate the matter. Pakistan has its own police, investigators, secret service, etc. Just like every other country in the world, it should be allowed to handle its own internal affairs.
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As I’ve noted elsewhere, they did NOT say the assessment of her cause of death was wrong or change it, they just apologized for mentioning it in the first place. No U-turn at all, but pandering to popular hysteria raised by Bhutto’s family and party while really not saying much of anything at all. You think our politics is crazy? Heh.
It’s internal politics and not any other nation’s place to interfere. But unless and until the Bhutto family agrees to an exhumation and post-mortem, I have to consider their claims to be highly suspicious and politically motivated rabble-rousing, undertaken for their own purposes.